May 2, 2010

Cumberland Island is a great spot to visit. We met up with our friends Susan and Danny Godin from “Potest Fieri”, whom we toured the island with. The island was owned by Thomas Carnegie who built several “cottages” for himself and his children. As you can see the main house was destroyed by a fire in the 1960’s however the sense of the mansion is still visible.

The island is best known for the wild horses that run freely and the fact that JFK junior was married in the small chapel on the island.

The family eventually donated it to the National Park Service who operates it as a camping and walking only island. It is a very unique and beautiful place.

Our next stop was Jekyll Island, another playground for the rich and famous in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. We took a guided tour of the historic district which included several of the houses. This island is operated by the State of Georgia and again is a very interesting and beautiful. After all these historic tours we really felt like tourists, which I suppose we are.

We were then committed to the trip through the marshes and savannahs of Georgia on the ICW. While this is an interesting trip it requires considerable planning to coordinate for the tides as there are several spots that have “skinny” water. The trip takes two days on our boats as they travel at 8 knots so we anchored in Kilkenney Creek. This was a very quiet anchorage in the middle of nowhere.

It was then on to Savannah, with another anchoring spot in Turners Creek on Wilmington Island. We arrived in downtown Savannah yesterday with “Potest Fieri” and spent a very hot and humid afternoon walking around the riverfront historic district. We had a nice dinner in an old warehouse restaurant called “The Cotton Exchange”.

Today we are off on another “touristy” guided tour of the historic district to learn more about and find spots to explore in this busy, historic, and interesting southern port city.

May 1, 2010

We have been moving on to many interesting places since my last post. We moved north from Stuart with stops in Vero Beach, Coco Beach and New Smyrna. We had a very nice visit with my Aunt Janice who lives in Orange City, FL. She is 91 years old and looks and acts about 75. It was great to see her.

From there we traveled to Daytona Beach then to the HRYC (Halifax River Yacht Club) which has a beautiful facility with a great restaurant, bars (they have two), pool and friendly people who treated very nicely.

Our next stop was in St. Augustine where we spent a couple of days exploring the city and the various historic spots. Let’s put is this way, Henry Flagler could have not have built anything, much less kept any of the money he made, if he had been trying to do it in today’s political environment.

After our escape from Florida our first stop was St. Mary’s in Georgia, a sleepy little village up the river from Cumberland Island.

More on Cumberland Island in the next posting.

April 19, 2010

I thought you all might be interested in some pictures I got of the dolphins swimming in the bow wave of the boat. Yesterday we had about 30 dolphins playing in the bow wave at various times. A typical group was 4-6 dolphins at a time.

April 16, 2010

Well we finally left Key Largo on last Saturday after our return from Judi’s family in Nashville, TN. The 1st night we made it to a nice little place called Sunset Harbor in Miami. Unfortunately the residents of the multi million dollar houses did not like people anchoring in their “backyard”. The fist guy told us the holding was terrible and that we would drag. We were already anchored and were going nowhere. The second guy actually launched his 30 foot Contender and came out and asked us to move as it was “upsetting his wife” to look at our boat. Suffice to say we did not move, he went away with his tail between his legs and we stayed 3 nights on the hook. I have heard the term “Trailer Trash” used in the Keys but Miami has “Mansion Trash”.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent with Ann and Phil McKay in Deerfield Beach. We went out to dinner one night and had a delicious dinner and lots of laughs at their lovely home right on the ICW.

Last night we anchored in Lake Worth at a nice spot however the holding was not very good. The bottom was extremely soft and even with 120 feet of chain we dragged about 50 feet overnight in a 20-30 knot east wind.

Today we are in Stuart, FL. We walked around the restored town and went into a few shops and had lunch at a place called “Mulligan’s Beach House”. DO NOT GET THE LOBSTER ROLL! This concoction had no resemblance to anything that I have previously have had that had the word lobster associated with it. I have had better Spam sandwiches.

Tonight we are having dinner with Scott and Mary Ann Loomis, old friends of ours from the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly. It will be nice to spend some time with them and get caught up.

Tomorrow we continue our trek north; we will keep you up to date.

March 27, 2010

We are still in Islamorada enjoying not having to put up with winter, a lot of rain, flooding and other weather issues. The weather here has been unusually cold for this time of the year but it is still not bad for northerners like us. Other than the northerly winds we have not had a lot of rain therefore we can still do anything that we want.

Mark Wells came down from Plymouth and spent two weeks with us. We partied more than we should at our age (Mark being much older than Judi or me) but we had a lot of laughs. The day he left, Judi & I escorted Mark to his car to make sure he was really leaving and that he turned north at the end of the driveway towards Miami.

Many of the people we have met along the way have been in Islamorada and Key Largo waiting to get across to the Bahamas. Northerly winds make it virtually impossible to cross the Gulf Stream as the wind against the waves builds a very ugly sea very quickly. We decided a while ago not go the Bahamas as the weather over there is about the same as here and we did not want to get over, be stuck and have to wait a long time to get back to the mainland.

We drove to Key West last week with our Canadian friends Danny and Susan Godin. Danny suggested that he and I go deep sea fishing with a retired Navy Pilot who has a winter place in Key West. Hughes Smith and his wife Pam live in Montana and he is an avid fisherman.

Danny and I drove down early so we could go fishing. Judi and Susan drove down later so they could go shopping on Duval Street until we all met later. We met Hughes at the dock in his 20 foot center console and it was blowing a nice 15 knots. Off we leave to go "Deep Sea Fishing". As we turn the corner out, the seas are 4-5 feet and real choppy. We keep going to the "200 foot wall", about 12 miles out and the seas are now 7-10 feet and we are all dripping wet. There are two other boats out there, 40-50 foot charter boats and they are doing 60 degree death rolls side to side. Needless to say we were the only 20 foot boat out there.

I was the designated driver as I know nothing about fishing. Danny and Hughes were rolling around trying to bait hooks and perform other weird maneuvers to get four lines over the side.

To make a long story short, we left at 9 AM, returned at 4:30 PM, caught one Barracuda, two Mahi-Mahi, burned 75 gallons of gas, ate several sandwiches, and drank a case of beer. I figure the four fish filets cost about $60-$70 each but I had a fun day "Deep Sea Boating". After hearing these guys spend the day yelling at non-existent fish to take the bait I do not want to hear anybody comment on sailboat racers yelling at the non-existent wind. The pictures speak for them selves.

Meanwhile, back on Duval Street Judi and Susan were surprised to see that it was college spring break and the place was a madhouse. This booze fueled hormone driven bacchanal is an annual event in Key West and it makes one wonder why parents bother to send their children off to college.

We all went to dinner and had a fun evening walking Duval Street and watching the wildlife. The next morning Judi and I went exploring Fort Zachary Taylor an old Civil War Fort and I climbed the Key West Lighthouse to get some pictures.

We spent one afternoon at the alligator farm in the Everglades taking an airboat ride and looking at hundreds of alligators.

We left this AM from Islamorada and are presently anchored in Tarpon Basin in Key Largo. It is a beautiful day and it is nice to be at anchor in the crystal clear water. We are meeting our friends Capt. Sterling and Judy this evening for a Saturday night in Key Largo.

Stay tuned